With the "Die-Hards" in Siberia eBook

CHAPTER XV

MORE INTRIGUES

While the loyal Russian officers were being murdered
in their beds, other events not less important were
happening. When Admiral Koltchak assumed supreme
authority the Directorate was surrounded by a party
of Royalist officers as turbulent and lawless as Trotsky
himself. Private code messages passed between
these officers as freely as if they already had the
power in their own hands. The first intimation
that Koltchak had of these conspiracies was a code
message from General Evanoff Renoff to General Beloff,
General Bolderoff’s Chief of Staff, which unfolded
many of the aspirations of these men, and showed their
objects to be exclusively personal. I read these
messages with great interest, as they gave me an excellent
insight into the mainsprings of the revolution and
incidentally into the character of the average Russian
officer. General Antonovsky, of the old Russian
Military Academy, who also assisted in the drafting
of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty with the Germans, was a
participant in the scheme, and was within an ace of
becoming the admiral’s Chief of Staff.
Everything was working splendidly, when the cipher
message from Renoff opened the ball. Beloff was
sent to the east, and Antonovsky to the south, and
the Absolutists became broken up.

On February 1 my liaison officer informed me that
as he waited in the corridor of headquarters, General
Beloff came out of General Lebediff’s room.
A little later General Antonovsky came out of another
room, and then these two were suddenly joined by a
certain Cossack general of a very truculent type.
I knew that this boded badly for order, and I warned
Koltchak’s young aide-de-camp. Shortly after
it was reported to me that an attempt had been made
to exchange a sham guard for the real one at the Supreme
Governor’s residence. That night I held
our direct wire from Colonel Johnson to my ear till
12.30 A.M., and found that it was tapped by Russian
Headquarters. General Knox had got to know things,
and took certain action, with the result that I sent
my officer to Russian Headquarters with instructions
to inform General Lebediff we were anxious for the
Supreme Governor’s safety; that if any harm was
contemplated against him we should hold him responsible
unless he made us acquainted with the danger in time
to avert it; further, that if the Absolutist officers
thought they could murder Admiral Koltchak and proclaim
an absolute Monarchy without the sanction of the people
of Russia they were mistaken; that whoever, whether
high or low, attempted to destroy the present Government
and throw Russia back into violence and anarchy would
be treated as enemies by the British soldiers.
General Lebediff answered that he knew of no special
danger threatening Admiral Koltchak at the moment,
but he thanked Colonel Ward for his offer to help
protect the Government in case of necessity.